The way to beautiful bread and consummate cake. Today: Cream cheese envelopes

I am reading a crime novel set in Greece that is as much a homage to the great cooking of Greece as it is an excellent mystery. The author, Anne Zouroudi, has created a lovable detective, the Fat Man, a Poirot with the body of Demis Roussos and the curiosity of a truffle hound. So delicious are the descriptions of food in Zouroudi’s books that I have to keep breaking off from reading to go and have a snack.

I know what you are thinking. Greek food – delicious? Not when you last holidayed there. But descriptions of greasy taverna dinners, while not exactly a cliché, have more to do with a lack of communication between tourists and those who cook for them. I was told many years ago to forget asking for a menu in a Greek restaurant but simply to walk into the kitchen, and in the most friendly, ingratiating manner, ask to look in the oven. There you will find the lovely simple vegetable dishes and stews the chef cooks for locals. I tried it and it worked – though it must be said, not everywhere.

The best meal I ever had in Greece was in a restaurant run by a tax inspector. At the time we thought that remarkable but now it says everything, really, about the financial crisis there. But let’s forget that for a moment and dwell instead on the beauty of the meze or small plates of food that came, seemingly in their dozens, to our table. Each ceramic dish dazzled with colour and brilliantly matched flavours. I still make a simple dish based on one of these: tomato, garlic, hot pepper and feta cheese (added at the end). I particularly like the fact that I can buy most of the ingredients in a late-night shop – including pitta bread to fry and eat with it.

The fresh cheeses from Greece (feta being the best known) have a striking affinity with bread and pastries. It must be the salt in the cheese, or the herbs which are often added. Little envelopes of thin pastry made with olive oil in place of butter are much easier to make than they look. Served warm, with a glass of rosé, you can almost say “summer at last”.

So: be kinder to Greek cooks next time you travel there. Behind the all-day breakfasts and fish suppers are some great dishes. One hopes, however, that the tax inspector has gone back to his day job.

This is an easy pastry to make by hand. Mix together the flour and salt, then stir in the olive oil. Add about 75ml/2½fl oz of the water and mix until you have a slightly sticky dough. If it does not come together as a dough and feels dry, add another 25ml/1fl oz water. Knead until the dough feels silky and smooth. Dust with flour occasionally if it sticks.

Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. This dough can be made 24 hours in advance.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. To make the filling, crumble the feta cheese into lumps about the size of your little fingernail. Add the chopped herbs but no extra salt as the cheese is already briny. Add a little fresh ground black pepper and set to one side.

Take the dough from the fridge and dust the worktop with flour. Roll the dough out to a thickness of about ¼ cm/tenth of an inch thick. You may need to pause between rolling, to allow the pastry to “relax” so you can roll it out further — make sure there is plenty of flour beneath the dough. With a pizza cutter or knife, divide the pastry into 24 squares. Place a heaped teaspoon of the cheese plus a little blob of the tomato purée in the centre of each square and gather up the edges — pinch together. Place each one on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment or brushed lightly with oil — they will be fragile.

Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until pale gold. You can serve them immediately or reheat once they have cooled.

Your letters

“How can I make garlic bread that does not wreck the dating chances of all my guests?” asks Kerry Noel, who wants to kick off the barbecue season by putting several foil-wrapped breads in the oven to warm through. If you want garlic but no dragon’s breath, the answer is to boil the peeled cloves first in milk then purée them, then mix with the softened butter.